


Terrible Things In Common

by QueenBookBuff



Series: The Scarlet and SJ Chronicles [8]
Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Boxing, Death, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Falling In Love, Father-Daughter Relationship, Past Child Abuse, Scars, The Scarlet and SJ Chronicles, Trigger for Child Abuse, Trigger for abuse, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenBookBuff/pseuds/QueenBookBuff
Summary: Hyde had a screwed up childhood. He has scars on the inside and out. Long buried memories come to the surface when he comes face to face with Scarlet's boyfriend who has scars even deeper than his.PLEASE READ NOTES!
Relationships: Jackie Burkhart/Steven Hyde, Scarlet and Caleb Haze, Steven Hyde/Original Character(s)
Series: The Scarlet and SJ Chronicles [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977190
Comments: 11
Kudos: 19





	Terrible Things In Common

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Please do not read this story if child abuse is a trigger for you. You can skip this section of the Chronicles and still easily follow the rest of the story. 
> 
> This is a very short Chronicle, but it connects to the next one that is coming out called "First Time" I needed to separate the stories so the connection between Haze and Hyde wouldn't be lost in all the things that are going to happen next.
> 
> I've been on a pretty dark writing streak lately, and for those who don't enjoy that... I am sorry, but my mood has been far from light. Lighter topics are coming, writing is my therapy and it helps get out the ick. I feel like my heart is about back in place, so look for more upbeat stories. 
> 
> I want to thank all of you who have been sending lovely comments. I love them. They make my whole day, and give me faith that others enjoy the world I have created. 
> 
> Be well. Love those around you. Do good in the world... and like always, 
> 
> Peace, Love, and Rock & Roll  
> QBB  
> PS- I know nothing about boxing. Please forgive mistakes on the topic.

Hyde strangely enjoyed yard work, he blamed it on Red. All those years ago when he did it for Eric, because he felt like he needed to pull his weight, at some point he started to like it and take pride it in. He was enjoying the quiet solitude of taking care of his yard. After the last few weeks, he just wanted to think things through. His heart was full of panic every time he watched Scarlet go out the door with Haze. That kid was bringing back memories. Memories he thought he had repressed. Those old memories brought with them his old nightmares. Dreams about losing Jackie and dreams that were really flashbacks of his childhood. He had not dreamed about Edna coming after him in a long time. He found himself closing off and shutting down. His attitude change was obvious, and he knew Jackie was worried about him. He had learned the hard way he needed to get his thoughts in order before he talked to Jackie. It was better for him to know what he wanted to say when he was trying to express his feelings. He hadn’t gotten all that much better at it, than when he was 19.

He was feeling entirely too much right now. Hyde felt blind panic at the mere idea his daughter was dating a kid who at the least lived a life like he did or worse. He experienced terror when he thought about her falling in love. When he thought about the way Haze and his Baby Doll stared at each other on Homecoming, he wanted to make the kid disappear. He knew that look. He invented that expression. He used that look every fucking day when he looked at Jackie.The kid might not know it yet, but he would die for Scarlet. It was written all over his face, and Hyde wasn’t ready for anyone to have that level of devotion to her other than her family.

Hyde knew he had been in a shit mood for weeks. It had gotten to the point that SJ was actively avoiding him in an effort to not get his head ripped off, and Scarlet was taking the be quiet route to stay out of his way. The worst part was Jackie was starting to push him to talk. If he didn’t get it together, she was going to push harder, and if he wasn’t prepared to share, he would snap at her. The idea of that pissed off and frustrated him. He wasn’t mad at her. None of this was her fault. 

He was angry that after all this time Edna could still haunt him. He was annoyed one stupid kid who resembled his life could bring those awful nightmares of her pounding the shit out of him back. So here he was trying to do yard work to find quiet, and understanding of scars that never stopped hurting. 

* * *

“You are such an ass!” shattered his peace, as his on fire daughter came stomping into the yard. It never stopped striking him how much she looked like Jackie, his tiny little firecracker. 

He wondered what the boy did to fuck up, and got private glee out of it. He was far from sold on this boy stealing his daughter’s heart. 

“Hey Baby Doll! What’s Wrong? I thought you and Haze were going to swim at the lake.”

She was in full fit mode, her arms were folded, stomped her foot and pouted, 

“Well we were, but when we got there he refused to swim. He said he was content to watch me swim and spend time with me on the beach. He had old ratty shorts on and a tee, I told him to come in and take his tee shirt off,  _ BUT NO _ …. He’s  _ Haze,  _ and he’s too cool to swim, too cool to take his shirt off like normal people”

Hyde felt something go cold inside of him, part of his issue with the dumbass dating his daughter was he had seen him in action. Haze worked out in the same boxing gym Hyde did. The kid fought like he was trying to beat something no one else could see. He boxed every match like his life depended upon it. He was undefeated in his weight class in the gym. Hyde knew you only fought that hard when you had something you couldn’t fight. Hyde sadly was familiar with having to fight to survive, and every punch that kid threw in the ring was an act of survival. 

Something else similar to him was that Haze never went shirtless when boxing, even when he was sparring. The more he thought about it, he realized that just like Hyde the closest he got was an undershirt but never totally bare chested. Hyde never went without a shirt with anyone but Jackie because he didn’t want them to know…. and with that thought Hyde simply knew. 

Raw and fucking hate for whatever had been done to the kid when he couldn’t fight back welled up in him. The certainty of why he kept his shirt on made Hyde go cold. He stared at Scarlet and said sternly,

“Scarlet, leave Haze alone about this, let it go. You are being over dramatic.”

Her dad taking her boyfriend’s side sent Scarlet into petulance and made her get shrill

“I’m being dramatic, he's the one who won’t take his damn shirt off like a normal person. NO…… he has to be different and moody, and I’m the one being dramatic?!”

Scarlet, who rarely got yelled at, was not skilled at reading her father for signs for anger, and she was missing them all. SJ who considered himself a master at the warning signs his dad was getting pissed would have told her to back off. He would have loved to witness what was about to happen, because Scarlet never got her ass reamed. 

Hyde barked angrily at his daughter, who was being shallow and stupidly rude. He hated she was pushing an area that hurt this kid

“SCARLET!”

Her head snapped up. She felt her breath catch. Her dad never yelled at her like this.

“You, will not give Haze crap about this. You will leave him alone. You will respect his wishes and you will for once in your damn life remember the world doesn't revolve around your spoiled ass.”

She was mute, all she could do was nod and her father gave her one last command,

“Do not doubt, I won’t embarrass you by asking him if you are still riding his ass about this, and that will embarrass him, and Scarlet if I have to do that…. You and I are going to have problems.”

He threw down the rake and stormed out of the yard leaving a bewildered and shocked Scarlet behind him. 

* * *

Hyde marched around the corner to their little alcove area where he had a built Jackie a little bench, planning to sit there and leash his temper, but found it occupied by a mortified Caleb Haze.

Hyde simply stared at him, he knew this kid more than this kid would ever know. He looked at him and said,

“She will never bring it up again, I am a man of my word, I guarantee it.”

Haze didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t ready to tell Scarlet yet. He was terrified if he told her she would bolt. Scarlet had lived her life in a golden bubble. Why would she want to be with a guy who had the past he did, or the bleak future he was sure he was destined to have? Everything about her was pure, clean, and not messed up. He craved her innocence and girlish delight. Haze desperately wanted her light to burn his dark away. He figured at the very least he should acknowledge Scarlet’s dad. He glanced at him, and he recognized something he had missed.

_ “Abused knows Abused” _

Hyde sat down next to the kid and said “I would have been pissed if anyone had tried to talk to me like, I am about to with you, so tell me to fuck off if you want, because I don’t know that I still wouldn’t say it. Listen Haze, I know why. Scarlet has never seen me shirtless, I never took the kids to the pool, Jackie always did and beach trips, I only enjoy the sun, but my shirt won’t ever come off in front of the kids.” 

The boy was staring at him intently, his gaze almost unreadable, but Hyde was a virtuoso at reading eyes that hid hell. Under the tough exterior, under the fuck off gaze, was a boy begging for someone to understand. Deeply hidden in that been to hell and back stare, was a little boy desperate for someone to help him. The part of Hyde that was driven to protect, did something for this kid he had never done for anyone but Jackie. He inhaled deeply and took off his shirt. He let Haze view his back and chest. It was a memorial to child abuse. Cuts, burns, slashes all marks Edna had left on him. The most prominent one was a healed but deep slash across his stomach where she had gone after him with a broken beer bottle.

“My mother was a fucking drunk, who beat the shit out of me on a regular basis. She literally abandoned me when I was a junior in high school. I understand Haze. I’m a grown man, and I still barely talk about it. You don’t need to say a damn word. She will never bring it up again.” 

Hyde shrugged his shirt back on and started to walk away. He didn’t expect this kid to talk to him, he never would have. He was almost to the gate he heard,

“My dad beat the shit out of my mom and I on a routine basis. When I was 10, he killed my mom and tried to kill me. It’s my living hell. I still have nightmares. I don’t want Scarlet to see the scars, because then she is going to ask. I don’t want her to know how completely fucked up I am. I actually don’t want anyone to know. It won’t change anything. I just want it to go away.” 

Hyde glanced back at the boy, this kid who had a more screwed up story than him and felt his heart break. His mind and heart filled with understanding on why he didn’t want anyone to know his demons. He knew this kid believed his past prevented him from having anything worthwhile. He understood Haze better than he had ever understood anyone, and it made him sick. It made him want to grab the kid and scream _ “Get the Hell Away From My Daughter.”  _ Hyde knew without a shadow of a doubt that Haze looked at Scarlet and saw a glimmer of hope he might have found something good. The boy was terrified if he let her all the way in she would run screaming. Jesus, he could write the damn book on that way of thinking.

Hyde did something he never thought he would do, he attempted to give what no one gave him……. _ hope _ .

“Haze, that is shit no kid or person should have to live through. Your scars will never go away, but here is something I learned and, it took me a long and fucked up road to get to this place……Your scars and past don’t dictate your future. If you let them, you let those mother fuckers who hurt you win. More importantly, a woman who loves you unconditionally can heal them, but it’s no one God Damn Business about them or your story, even Scarlet’s.”

Haze merely nodded, Hyde was about to walk away again when Haze said “can I show you?’

Hyde got a lump in his throat and nodded yes, Haze shrugged his shirt off, to reveal deep scars, that even after eight years were still raised and pink.

“They are yours, and you can’t get rid of them. They are proof you survived and that you fight daily to not be the hell you lived. I won’t say a word to Scarlet.” then Hyde strode away.

Haze dropped on the bench. For the first time since the night his mother was killed he cried, because he never imagined he would meet someone who would understand, least of all the father of the Golden Girl of Madison High.


End file.
